August 2009
Kenkyu Kai practuce is on Friday, August 7th. Mr. Carl Nakamura has announced that we will have mock matches between Hawaii World Championship Team and selected Hawaii kenshis. Jessica Sneed, out club member, has graduated from Mililani High School as a valedictorian. She is one of the prime examples of my kendo philosophy, “Kendo and study go together. “ I will leave for Japan soon. Mr. Logan Uyehara is kind enough to take over practices on two Wednesdays, August 5th and 12th. I will be practicing at Ryobukan dojo in Fukushima where I always receive some inspirations. A little over 20 Kokushikan University students from Japan will be in town from September 7th till 12th. Professor Kinji Baba will take students to some Oahu dojos to practice with us. Team Hawaii for World Kendo Championship will leave for Brazil in the end of August. They have been practicing hard. Good luck to them. Some of our club money was donated to support the team. Jeff Marsten sensei with Pacific Northwest Kendo Federation has informed me that PNKF will host Women’s Tournament on June 26, 2010. Those ladies and girls who want to participate should mark calendars, save money and plan to arrange days off. Last time Hawaii Team coached by Wesley Fujimoto came in close 2nd. We will start our annual Zippy’s Chili sale in the end of August. We need your help since our club funds are getting smaller after supporting Hawaii Team for WKC, Mililani Youth Trip to Japan and so forth. In July, my club was in charge of leading Honbu dojo practices. I lead practices four Sundays. I demonstrated before what we would do, then, participants followed my examples. My demonstration did not go well many times, maai too close or too far, men uchi slipped off, uchi not strong enough and so on. By teaching I learned that I needed more practices. Teaching is learning. Maintaining learning attitude is important even when you are teaching.
Iwao Sato, Chief Instructor, Wahiawa Kendo Club